After the priest has thrice said: "Salutation to the gods, to progenitors, to mighty saints, &c.," he dismisses him; lights a lamp in honour of the deceased; meditates on Heri with undiverted attention; casts the food, and other things used at the obsequies, into the fire; and then proceeds to the cemetery for the purpose of gathering the ashes of the deceased.
So long as mourning lasts after gathering the ashes, the near relations of the deceased continue to offer water with the same formalities and prayers as already mentioned, and to refrain from factitious salt, butter, &c. On the last day of mourning, the nearest relation puts on neat apparel, and causes his house and furniture to be cleaned; he then goes out of the town, and after offering the tenth funeral cake, he makes ten libations of water from the palms of his hands; causes the hair of his head and body to be shaved, and his nails to be cut, and gives the barber the clothes which were worn at the funeral of the deceased, and adds some other remuneration. He then anoints his head and limbs, down to his feet, with oil of sesamum; rubs all his limbs with meal of sesamum, and his head with the ground pods of white mustard; he bathes, sips water, touches and blesses various auspicious things, such as stones, clarified butter, leaves of Nimba, white mustard, Durva grass, coral, a cow, gold, curds, honey, a mirror, and a couch, and also touches a bamboo staff. He now returns purified to his home, and thus completes the first obsequies of the deceased.
The second series of obsequies, commencing on the day after the period of mourning has elapsed, is opened by a lustration termed the consolatory ceremony. The lustration consists in the consecration of four vessels of water, and sprinkling therewith the house, the furniture, and the persons belonging to the family. After lighting a fire, and blessing the attendant Brahmanas, the priest fills four vessels with water, and, putting his hand into the first, meditates the gayatri, before and after reciting the following prayers: 1.--May generous waters be auspicious to us, for gain and for refreshing draughts; may they approach towards us, that we may be associated with good auspices. 2.--Earth afford us ease; be free from thorns; be habitable. Widely extended as thou art, procure us happiness. 3.--O waters! since ye afford delight, grant us food, and the rapturous sight [of the Supreme Being]. 4.--Like tender mothers, make us here partakers of your most auspicious essence.